


EC Week: Day 1 David 'Dark One' Nolan

by Dena1c



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU David as the Dark One, ECWeekDay1, F/M, Hook mentioned briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 13:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30005754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dena1c/pseuds/Dena1c
Summary: EC Week: Day 1 entry. David as the Dark one. Snow loses her mind. Hope you all enjoy.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Prince Charming | David Nolan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	EC Week: Day 1 David 'Dark One' Nolan

David as the Dark One  
Emma stood with the curved dagger in hand, ready to take her best friends place in the swirling mass of darkness. David couldn’t just stand by while his daughter threw away her happiness. He released his loose grip on his wife and grabbed the dagger from his daughter before shoving Regina out of harms way, causing her to fall onto the tarred surface of main street. He looked her dead in the eyes, her wonderful, kind eyes,  
“I’m sorry.”  
She stared wide-eyed as the tornado of black magic lifted the man into the night sky, vanishing without a trace.  
“No!”  
A glint caught her eye as something heavy fell to earth. She crawled towards it, there against the black of the road, the dark one’s dagger glinted menacingly. The only difference now being that the dagger was no longer blank, but instead bore the name of the man she loved:  
‘David Nolan’.  
Regina clutched the dagger to her chest and wept. Foolhardy, idiot. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Snow White walk towards her hand outstretched to grab the dagger.  
“Don’t you dare!” Snow took a step and pulled her hands away as if she’d almost been bitten.  
“Regina, I should have the dagger. I’m his wife.” Regina laughed almost maniacally,  
“Oh that’s rich! You bicker for months, argue in front of both your children. You belittle him and humiliate him at every chance you get. He is miserable.” Snow looked affronted and went to went to continue the argument.  
“Mom. She’s right. Dad is miserable. He spends most of his time at the station to avoid going home to another argument.”  
“You’re taking her side?!”  
“She’s Dad best friend. He tells her everything. When he’s not at the station, he’s hanging out at Regina’s.” Snow had heard enough and stormed off, furious that her own daughter had taken the side of the enemy. 

Regina was still kneeling in the middle of the street. Emma went to help her friend but was stopped by hand on her arm.  
“Leave her love, she’s fine. Come back to the ship with me.” Emma stared at Hook in disgust and wrenched her arm from his grip.  
“No. I’m going to help my friend. Don’t expect to hear from me again Hook. I mean it, stay away from me. Got it?”  
She didn’t wait for an answer and strode over to the brunette and kneeled beside her. Regina lifted her face, tears were streaming down her face, still clutching the dagger.  
“Come on Regina, let’s get you home.”

Emma became disturbed when she saw how calm Regina had become. Tears were no longer streaming down her cheeks. She overtook Emma and walked into her study and made a direct route to the drinks cart by the fireplace. She poured a drink and downed it. She poured another and moved to behind her desk, Emma watched her carefully as the brunette put the dagger into a drawer and waved her hand over the lock, a purple glow flared. Regina downed the drink still in her hand,  
“Scotch, Emma?”  
“Should you really be drinking right now?” Regina shrugged,  
“Probably not.” She poured another two drinks and handed one off to the blonde. Emma held the drink in her hand and watched her friend drop herself on the couch.  
“You love him, don’t you?” Regina’s eyes stung with tears as she nodded and covered her face with her free hand. Emma put her drink down on the table and kneeled in front of her, pulling her hand down and holding it in her own.  
“Hey, it’s okay. Look, I’m staying tonight. Don’t argue with me. I’m staying, I’d rather not go back to the apartment tonight, so you’d be doing me a favour.” Regina nodded,  
“You can take the spare bedroom, it’s always ready in case…” she trailed off.  
“In case Dad wanted to stay?” Regina nodded again. Emma nodded along with her and rested a hand on her knee.  
“Let’s get to bed, we can deal with this in the morning.” Regina stood. “You don’t want to take the dagger with you?”  
“I locked it with blood magic. Unless Zelena makes a surprise appearance from Oz, no one is getting near it.” They walked upstairs and split up at the spare room door.  
“Goodnight Regina.”  
“Night Emma.”

Regina sat on her bed, picking at the edge of her duvet, looking out through the window. She didn’t notice the figure standing in the shadows until they moved towards her. She gasped and stood from the bed.  
“Who’s there?” The figure stepped forward and was dowsed in moonlight. “David? Oh my god.” She hurried around the bed and threw her arms around his neck. David chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her up from the floor. He put her back down and the smiled that graced her face was breath-taking. It did not last long. In an instant it was gone and she was hitting his chest with closed fist.  
“What the hell were you thinking?” he grasped her wrists and pulled them down.  
“I couldn’t let you go back to the darkness, not after how hard you’ve worked and I’ll be damned if I was going to let Emma do the same.” He cupped her face in his hands and wiped the tears on her face away with his thumbs. A knock sounded at the door and a blonde head popped in,  
“Regina, you okay? I thought I heard…” She trailed off, “Dad?”  
“Hey Sweetheart.” He pulled his daughter in for a hug cradling the back of head gently. “I’m sorry you two. I can’t stay for much longer. I can feel the darkness pulling me back again.” This prompted more tears from both women. “I have to go I’m so sorry.” With that he vanished into a cloud of grey smoke. The women stood in the middle of Regina’s bedroom still slightly shellshocked. Emma looked down, clearly reluctant to leave and be on her own now. Regina moved to the bed, climbed in and patted the space next to her. The blonde smiled and hurried to the left side of the bed.  
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Regina sighed and lay down,  
“Yes, we’ll figure it out. He won’t be the dark for long. Not if I can help it.”

Regina stood at the stovetop stirring some scrambled eggs when Emma wandered in to the kitchen rubbing her eyes. Regina chuckled at the bed-hair on her friend,  
“Good morning Emma, eggs?” Emma looked at her through tired eyes,  
“Coffee please.” Regina laughed and passed her a mug, filled to the top with coffee. The blonde took a huge gulp and sighed,  
“So eggs?”  
“Yes please.” Regina passed her a plate. Emma started eating and thinking, she couldn’t remember the last time Snow had thought to make her breakfast, or even ask if she wanted a meal. She noticed a pile of books at the end of the counter.  
“What are those?”  
“Oh I thought I’d get a little head start on some research.” Emma frowned,  
“Regina, how long have you been awake?” Regina looked down and rubbed the back of her neck,  
“Oh um, just an hour or so?” Emma’s frowned deepened,  
“You didn’t sleep did you?” Regina sighed,  
“No. No I didn’t. I came back down at about three. I couldn’t sleep.”  
“I get it. You want to help him.”  
“I just want my best friend back Emma. I need him back.”

Across town Snow was scrolling through her TV channels bored out of her mind.  
“So nice to know you care that I’m gone.” She turned quickly and stood from her seat on the couch.  
“David, you’re okay.” David scrunched his face up in disbelief,  
“Are you insane? I’m not okay! I’m the fucking Dark One Snow. But on the plus side, I’m feeling a lot braver than I have in a while.” Snow rolled her eyes,  
“What are you talking about David?”  
He waved his hand and a manilla envelope appeared.  
“Now I’m not a process server or anything but the meaning is real.” He held out the envelope for her to take. She took the envelope and he smiled, “You’ve been served.”  
With that he vanished in a swirl of grey smoke. Snow opened the envelope to find divorce papers, already signed by one David Nolan. 

Regina and Emma sat in her study pouring over books when a frantic knock sounded at the front door.  
“I’ll get it. You know what these books are talking about anyway.” Regina smiled and nodded.  
“-don’t care. Where the hell is that witch?!” Regina stood at the sound in her foyer and hurried out of the study. Henry, hearing the commotion was halfway down the stairs and Emma appeared to be blocking her mother from coming any further into the house. It had finally happened. Snow had lost her mind, waving bits of paper in the air.  
“You! This is your fault! You whore!” Snow having now gotten around Emma, waved the bits of paper in her face. Regina struggled to focus on the words on the papers, but the word divorce stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn’t have time to react to the words before an open palm slapped across her face, she felt a flash of pain on her cheekbone. Henry rushed down the stairs to his mothers side.  
“Mom what the hell was that?! Get out, now!” Snow smiled,  
“I did what I came here to do. Have him, see if I care. Now that he’s evil, you deserve each other. Give him these from me will you?” she shoved the papers into Regina’s arms and stormed from the mansion.

“Emma, I’m fine.” The brunette tried to push the blonde’s hands away from her face.  
"No Regina. Her ring caught your lip. Let me clean it.” before Regina could argue henry chimed in.  
"Mom let her help please." the brunette rolled her eyes but let the blonde finish up disinfecting the cut, only letting out a small hiss at the sting. The blonde’s eyes filled with tears,  
“Emma it's hay it's not your fault."  
Emma nodded and day her best to pull herself together. Regina watched her struggle internally and finally pulled the blonde in for a hug. Emma sobbed into Regina’s shoulder, while the brunette stroked her hair and shushed her.  
“Come on now, I'm okay, " Regina said, “on the bright side, David is single now.  
Emma and Henry joined her laugher and for a moment all felt right.

Regina sat alone in the study, Emma and Henry having left to get take-out.  
"I'm sorry." Regina startled, "I didn't know that she'd do that. I mean I knew she'd be angry but...” David walked over to her and gently moved his thumb over the cut on her cheek. Her hand came up to trap his.  
“I’m fine David. Really Emma cleaned me up.” David smiled,  
“Let’s hope she doesn't change vocation; she'd make a terrible nurse.” Regina chuckled. “Regina, there’s something I need to say, and I've been too much of a coward until now. So, here goes. Regina Mills, I love you, I was miserable before and I knew why. I wasn’t with you. I couldn’t love you. Not like I wanted to. Not the I needed to. I – “  
" David? "  
" Yeah?  
"Shut up.”  
“Yeah.”  
She reached her arms around his neck and pulled him down. One last look into his eyes and she pressed her lips to his. David wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her even closer. David pulled away suddenly and the swirling black mass of darkness streamed from him and into the drawer beside them.  
“Um Regina, was that what I thought it was?” Regine held up a finger and took the dagger from the drawer. It was blank. Regina waved her hand and the dagger turned to dust and vanished.  
“What did you do?”  
“I just ended the dark one. Once and for all.”  
“I’m back to normal?”  
“I mean if you want to call what you were before normal, then sure.”  
“Oh haha.” He pulled her to him, pushed her into the desk and pressed a kiss to her lips.  
“Oh I didn’t need to see that.”  
“Ditto kid.” David and Regina parted as the two came in. Regina doubted their disgust when she saw the giant grins on their faces.  
“Well get used to it.”  
“Wait. Dad, are you…?”  
“Yeah, I’m back to me. Thanks to true love.” He finished and wrapped his arm around Regina’s waist. “I love you.”  
“I love you too.”  
“Group hug!” Emma and Henry ran to embrace the couple. It was finally time for Regina’s new beginning. One she certainly hoped would turn into her happy ending.  
The End.


End file.
